7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 2001

3. It Was One Of Kane's Best Performances In His Career

The Kane character has been in WWE for 18 years. It can be argued that the best performance of his entire career was in the 2001 Royal Rumble. Kane was the 6th man in the Rumble match. He was still masked at this point. There was only one man in the ring at #5 - it was actor Drew Carey. Vince McMahon put Carey in the match because he was there promoting a show. Carey was actually alone in the ring because the others before him (including Matt & Jeff Hardy) eliminated each other. Carey ended up avoiding an attack when Raven entered, so Carey walked over the top to the floor. It became a Hardcore style Rumble with weapons used for much of the match with one constant the entire time: Kane's dominance. The way they booked Kane as a monster was phenomenal. He was the most dominant person in the history of the Rumble as he eliminated a record 11 guys, which was the record until Roman Reigns eliminated 12 guys 53:46 minutes of action. When The Undertaker came out, they cleared the ring of everybody else and then they looked like an unbeatable duo until the ring started to ill up a bit more. Due to how Kane was booked, any time somebody went after him it was a big deal. Whether it was Rock, Big Show or Austin at the end of the match, the crowd reacted to Kane's presence in a big way. That's the key to the Rumble. Make a guy look strong because if he gets eliminated the guy that tosses him out is going to look like a big deal. Kane lasted all the way until the end of the match as the final adversary of Steve Austin, who was able to eliminate him thanks to three chair shots.